Double Pom Pom Hat

I picked up some Loops & Threads Charisma from Michael's today since it was on sale for $2. I've been wanting to make a new hat as a prop for holiday photos and I wanted to use my pom pom maker for it.... So I made this double pom pom hat.

Pre-Pom Pom

Pardon my strange expressions!

Double Pom Pom Hat

Yarn: Super Bulky

Hook:  6.5mm/K
Size: Should fit an adult woman (obviously ;P) or a child 4+ (there's some stretch to it!). For adult men, I'd recommend a larger hook or adding 4-6 stitches to each row.

ch21

Rnd 1: 40 hdc around - 40 sts

Rnd 2 19 hdc, inc, rep - 42 sts

Rnd 3: 20 hdc, inc, rep - 44 sts

Rnds 4-16: hdc around - 44 sts

The pom poms were made with Clover's Large Pom Pom Maker using white Caron One Pound and the Red Charisma from the hat. I just put both strands from the prom pom and put them through the corners of the hat and tied them tightly.

I imagine that using worsted weight, a 5.5mm hook, and doing something like this would likely work as well:

ch34

Rnd 1: 68 hdc around - 68 sts

Rnd 2: 33 hdc, inc, rep - 70 sts

Rnd 3: 34 hdc, inc, rep - 72 sts

Rnds 4-24?: hdc around - 72 sts

Nerd Dollz

I don't normally do this, but I found this Etsy shop when I was browsing "Supernatural" things (talk about going down the rabbit hole... It all started because A Dog's Life Animal Rescue posted a Groupon, that charity coincidentally being one that Jared Padalecki endorses [I chose the charity as the one I wanted to donate some of my ebay proceeds to since it seemed cool and I <3 my dog... and then see that there is a random Supernatural connection to it, haha]).

I digress.

I found this shop, NerdDollz, on Etsy. Normally, I see something like this and am a bit "meh" about them, but not only are these dolls seemingly very well made and designed, but they are realistically priced. (I am NOT a fan of overpriced sh!t on Etsy... it, IMO, goes against the community feel). I am very tempted to buy myself an early present of these:

How awesome are those?! And they're just, like, $70 for all 3.

Also quite fabulous is this:

Yes, that is Ezio Auditore from Assassin's Creed. Cute, right?

Think of a nerdy character and this shop seems to have it! Star Wars, Harry Potter, Kick Ass, Avatar, Shrek... even Twilight. And I'd imagine the seller is open to suggestions as well.

I've seen other amigurumi (though not Sam, Dean & Cas) and am seriously inspired! I'm going to have to see if I can make anything nearly as cool (maybe as gifts, but also maybe just for me). And if & when I am unable to (whether it be skill or time lacking), I'm going to have to pay the awesome Shannon Nix from Shawnee, KS to make me some!

Speaking of fantastic crochet nerd amigurumi, I also wanted to plug PigCorner.com's ami patterns... She, too, has an Ezio that is awesome:

Pattern and video tutorial found here.

Creative and crafty nerds are so fun!

Star Lights

Solar Star Lights from plowhearth.com

Two posts in as many days? What?! :P

I have been trying to find another light source for our living room for awhile now and haven't been having much luck. Right now, we have 4 star paper lanterns up in the corner above the couch (hanging from the ceiling), but the room is pretty good sized and really needs more light than that. We often turn on the light above our stairs (which is on the opposite side from the stars) when we need more light, but that only sort of works.

We also don't have a lot of wall to our living room since the downstairs floor plan is fairly open. Something on the ceiling might be nice, but we have about 6 feet of lower ceiling and then it's a really, really high ceiling for the rest of the room. It would also potentially be costly to do something like recessed lighting, besides the time and effort it would require.

White Organza Star String Lights on Amazon

I'm considering putting some strands/strings of lights up on the one wall to solve this problem, but don't want anything boring or too low so that people would potentially hit their heads ('cause neither of those sound desirable, right?). I came across some star-shaped lights via google. Now, the ones I found are actually solar and for outdoors (obviously :P). Which I now also really want 'cause they would be a fabulous light source for our deck, which is another place I'm looking to glam up.

Continuing my search a bit, I looked on Amazon for some star lights. I found these: White Organza Star String Lights. Now I like those too! Not for outdoors, obviously, but they're cute for indoors, no? But I can't help but think that I could probably make something like those. They are, after all, just organza on frames covering lights. (Just got an idea to, if I attempt this, make some ornaments like those too 'cause that would be pretty neat!). Maybe use something like pipe cleaners, floral stems or toothpicks for the frame...

Ben Light's Star Light Minis

And from that, I went to searching along the lines of "DIY star lights" and came upon This Blog Post (modhomeecteacher at curbly.com) about making star light covers out of manila envelops, which was nabbed from DudeCraft.com, which posted from Makezine.com's article about making paper stars for Christmas ornaments (okay, I imagine that was a bit exhausting to read, but I wanted to give those blogs credit for leading me to the tutorial!).

Ben Light's photoset on Flickr shows photos of a few stages, as well as a template to make your own. Awesome, right? And I figure any paper would likely work, not just manila envelopes. I have quite a lot of different types of paper due to my origami lucky star addiction, including some white vellum. Not only do I think they could be cool for Christmas time, but if they turn out well, they could solve the problem I have in my living room! And, really, for that matter, possibly work outside on the deck as well. Though I would probably try covering them with Mod Podge Outdoor and have them under the awning if I put them outside...

Template here

I suppose you could also modify this pattern for non-light purposes, too. And I will report back when I try any of the crafty things I've talked about here. Let me know if any of you make any attempts! I'd love to see them!

Been awhile!

Domo-Kun Hat
(note: I tried to list this on Etsy and was reported as having
violated copyright for Domo... Just FYI, the company who
owns the rights are nazis and not especially friendly people)

I have been crocheting, but I haven't been updating here for awhile! I've made quite a few Castle Crashers hats for fans on Etsy, as well as baby hats and starghans for friends and family. I also made a domo-kun hat with a bit of pseudo-intarsia.

And a dog sweater for my puppy (though he has since grown out of it, ha).

Right now, I'm working on play food again, this time for a different friend's daughter. I've been looking all over the internet again for inspiration and patterns and have, again, found several.

So far, I've made several more strawberries (what can I say? I like how they come out!), a few chocolate chip cookies (a different pattern than the one I did before smaller)

Christmas Tree Sugar Cookie (crappy cellphone photo - sorry!)

- a Christmas tree cookie: Created using Suzie's pattern for a tree here. My modifications:
For the bottom tree, I simply added another row to each section and adjusted the following rows accordingly (9hdc after row 3, 7hdc for row “4”, 11hdc after row 7, 9hdc for row “8”, 17hdc for the final row).
Then, I embroidered white lines to the front of the green tree and sewed the green tree to the bottom tree.


- A few fried eggs
- A donut
-Some sushi rolls:I intend to make some with red in the middle, some with red & green and maybe some with red, green & orange.

5sc into a magic ring with “filling” color(s)
ch1, 2sc into each sc with white, join w/sl st - 10 sts
ch1, 1 sc, 2sc all around, join w/sl st - 15 sts
ch1, Sc in fr loops only with brown, join w/sl st - 15 sts
5 - sc around - 15 sts
6 - ch1, sc in fr loops only with white - 15 sts
7 - ch1, sc, sc2tog - 10 sts
8 - ch1, sc2tog with “filling” color(s), finish off - 5 sts


I intend to also make another banana, probably another corn, some more cookies, maybe some pizza, toast, sandwich...

I also want to finish making some rattles for another friend's daughter (donut type with the heads of Hello Kitty, Minnie Mouse, Princess Leia and perhaps a 4th girl one).

Peppermint/Candy Cane Pointy hat (with bells!)

I made a tea cozy that was peppermint striped and wanted to make a hat... So I did! :) I also made my first-ever pom-pom and added a string of (removable) jingle bells to finish it off.

ch5, join with sl st
Rnd 1: 5sc in loop - 5 sts
Rnd 2: ch1, 2sc in each st, sl st - 10 sts
From there, I believe I just dc'd around, slowly increasing each row and changing color as I went.